Maudy's Cooking Journal!

After our first try and liked it, hubby and I decided to make another millet salad. For this one, I used broccoli, spinach, black beans (all three from CSA), onion, and curried chicken. This easy, humble, and delectable meal will definitely be on our dining table again someday.


P.S. I've used my rice cooker to cook rice, millet, and quinoa. Hubby thought we should call it grain cooker from now on. Grain cooker it is!

Happy weekend, y'all!

I am blessed for having such a great academic advisor during grad school. That professor, which also my thesis advisor, not only showed me a lot of things related to my field, but also gave me examples how to be professional yet caring person. He is a taciturn man, but his respect to students was apparent, from being very responsive to emails to being present whenever his support was needed. Some professors I know tend to be curt, eccentric, and unapproachable as if they could gain students respect or could look great in their profession by doing those unnecessary things. Those are people who usually like to harshly criticize students' work during reviews as if having hurt feeling was part of the program. I was observing personality from professors that was useful in the teaching environment. My academic advisor showed me that everyone could be a great professor not matter what kind of personality he had as long as he was passionate of teaching, generous in sharing, and sincere in encouraging.


I am glad my friend and I could meet him for lunch before he left for good to pursue a better career. We almost didn't initiate the meeting because we were worried of having silent and awkward moment, but our concern didn't happen After lunch, we were given a tour of his house, a famous sustainable home designed by an interdisciplinary team of University of Tennessee students and faculty called The New Norris House. The house design and the systems were really cool. At the end of our visit, we brought some vegetables from its garden.


Having a giant zucchini and couple stalks of basil from my professor's garden; tomatoes from CSA, and garlics from my friend, Thea's garden, I thought of making zucchini pasta. I got the recipe from a cooking show and interested because of its simplicity. The name, pasta, is misleading because there is no wheat noodle. Pasta in this recipe refers to long ribbony thin zucchini, so this dish falls on salad category.



Have I told you that I am crazy about pesto? I had pesto for almost everyday this week and will have another pesto lunch today.

Zucchini Pasta
Source: Delicious TV VegEZ
Ingredients:
1 big zucchini
2 cup fresh basil
6 cloves of garlic
1/3 cup walnut/ pinenut
2 medium tomatoes, seeded, drained, coarsely chopped
1 cup olive oil
Salt
Pepper

Using a vegetable peeler, cut the zucchini into lengthwise ribbons. Continue peeling until you get to the seeds at the core of the zucchini. I would save the core for vegetable stir-fry. Transfer the zucchini pasta to a serving plate.
Grind basil, garlic, nuts, and tomatoes in a food processor. Add salt, pepper, and olive oil. Mix again until well blended.
Pour the sauce over the zucchini pasta and serve immediately

We've been enjoying vegetables from CSA this past two months. At the end of last year's period, hubby decided to get full share instead of half share we had last year. The price for full share is much less that double that of the half one, but the amount is almost double. I love to see his excitement everytime he opens the veggie box. I also feel blessed that there are people working hard for the best veggies we get. Gardening requires extensive labor that no one without commitment and passion can do.

On our 6th anniversary, we decided to stay at home. We'd had so much fun for 2 weeks with our parents and sister, and we agreed that all of that was superfluous to celebrate our anniversary. Moreover, since we were out of town for a week, our veggies supply were piled up. Therefore, we decided to have salad for our dinner. The dinner was served in a wooden bowl that was given by our dearest friend as our 6th anniversary gift. We call the bowl, "love bowl" . Life is good in here, people!

Hubby doesn't have to ask me what dressing I want to have on my salad or sandwich. It has to be honey mustard. I don't know when I started liking it, because I am not a fan of mustard. Anyhow, mustard, mayo and honey make a perfect combination.

One day when eating salad from restaurant at downtown, I let hubby try my salad without telling him that it contained honey and mustard. He hates mustard and honey even more. He wouldn't eat food if he knew that that food contained honey. Finally after eating, I told him what that dressing was made of. Since then, he likes honey mustard, but still doesn't like honey nor mustard.

Since we get a lot of veggies from our CSA box, having several dressings ready in our fridge is a must. Besides some bottle of dressings, I tried to make my own honey mustard using non-fat yogurt instead of mayonnaise.

Honey Mustard Dressing
from All recipe
Ingredients:
1/4 cup non-fat plain yogurt
1 tablespoon prepared mustard
1 tablespoon honey
1/2 tablespoon lemon juice

Mix all ingredients until well combined. Store in a covered jar and refrigerate.

Huzarensla
Ingredients:
3 potatoes, washed, steamed, peeled, and cubed
4 eggs, sliced. The yolks are used to make the sauce
2 big carrot, peeled, cubed, steamed
1 cup cubed green apple
1 cup cut pineapple
1/2 cup chopped green bean, steamed
4 leaves green lettuce, chopped
1 beet, boiled, diced (optional)
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